Alchemize to Reopen Sept. 6

Great news for live music in Cincinnati.

Wasting Money

This Township knows how to waste money.

COAST Backs Poor Tax

It is very strange that an Anti-tax group backed pro-tax calls. I guess taxes that affect rich people is their focus.

Phil Heimlich's Tax Hike on the Poor

I knew it, you knew it, but now everyone can know that it was all about getting Phil Heimlich elected, not about doing the business of government.

A Victory

Great news for civil rights in Cincinnati. Lets hope the forces of darkness fold up shop and move on to something void of the hate.

Trashin' the Larry

I was hesitant to respond to Larry Gross's Column in last week's City Beat, but in the end I am going to put out the basic problems with Larry's points and what I believe he is missing:

1. Criticize Cincinnati all you want! - The problem Larry misses is that when you are gloating with "I-told-you-so" blog posts and articles, you are not criticizing, you are bashing the city.
2. Larry's basis for attack was flawed! - Larry missed the points I was making that soon after restaurants and bars close something reopened in its place, something he failed to note. Granted that doesn't always happen, but the vast majority of the locations Larry cited had something similar reopen within a year.
3. Larry missed how he's stuck in stasis! - Larry, get over not have a movie theater downtown. We have many more theatres showing live people on stage downtown and in OTR than existed in the 1970's, no???
4. Playing the NKY vs. Cincinnati game is more bashing! - When you pit Newport and Covington as the bizzaro Cincinnati, then you are attacking, not criticizing. What is the basis to say that Newport, Cincinnati, and Covington shouldn't be thought of as the unified central urban core of the Metro area? Why aren't they thought of as complementary, not competitors?
5. What gives with the rest of the column? - Ok I don't know how mentioning me or Nick Spencer does much for the point of column, and I know even less how including references to my blog post titles and background on Rick Hines adds anything. I guess that is just adding some of the backstory to the non-blog readers out there, but I don't know that it helps much.

I hope that Larry wants the downtown and the city to thrive, as he stated in his column, but claims don't supersede acts. When you add to the negative perception of downtown using flawed comments and you fail to put into perspective the fears people have of downtown and OTR, you feed the beast. When you provide no suggestions for improvement, you look like you are enjoying the perceived decline.

I am embarrassed that people who have lived here longer than I have refuse to maintain a positive attitude and look at change not as a negative, but instead as what we need. You can't go home again Larry. Your old Cincinnati died 30 years ago. Join us in building a new Cincinnati.

Real or Fake, Certainly Irrelevant

I don't know if this email is real or fake, but it should be ignored by the powers that be, or what ever "movers and shakers" received it in the first place. One person is pissed off, big fucking deal. One person has a bad experience in any city and you don't go and change everything you are doing as a government or as a community.

If you assume for moment she is real, then she has a huge preconceived notion of Cincinnati or of the United States in general. She reads like she got a handout from a boycott activist.

Her ignorance is clear in her original email.

We decided to watch the local news each day. From doing so, one might never know that Cincinnati's population is 47% Black, as we learned on the internet before choosing to visit. We saw one Black reporter on each of two stations, but watched many reports on Black people being arrested for drugs in a place called OTR.

She obviously doesn't know the difference between the racial breakdown of the City proper and the Metro Area of Cincinnati. Sure, 47% is a possible number for the City, but not one I could find on the Internet, but the TV market reaches an area where blacks are less than 12% of the population. If she is going to play a quota game, then play it fairly. Also, how many folks from Canada are quick to pick up on the "OTR" abbreviation? I would be surprised if a anchor on local news is calling Over-the-Rhine "OTR," but you never know.

As a sidenote, if she is indeed an activist trying to stir up a little trouble, I wonder if she thought about following the boycott? Oh, wait, that's been over for a while now, and last week Al Sharpton appeared at the new Convention Center just to make it official.

The Cincinnati Metro Area still has a great many racial problems, but this lady's observations are trivial/anecdotal at best, and faked at worst.